Shawn Michaels opens up on life after wrestling in revealing new book

Shawn Michaels is undoubtedly one of the greatest professional wrestlers in the history of the business, but the price he paid to excel in the ring and the lifestyle of a WWE superstar nearly derailed his life. Michaels started wrestling in the mid-’80s and rose to fame as a member of The Rockers, but became an international superstar as The Heartbreak Kid, winning the WWF championship for the first time in 1996 at WrestleMania XII.

A back injury suffered at the 1998 Royal Rumble forced Michaels into early retirement, and his personal life was in disarray. Michaels begins the book by recalling the “rock bottom” moment in his life after leaving the WWE for the first time, when his addiction to pain killers used to numb the effects of decades of wrestling began to take over his life. At his lowest point, Michaels was taking 35 pills per day. Lying in a “pill-induced fog” on his couch, his then 2-year-old son Cameron remarked that “daddy’s tired.”

Michaels, now aware that even a toddler could recognize his physical condition, asked God to change his life. In Wrestling For My Life, released Tuesday, Michaels chronicles how he transformed his life by becoming a Christian, and gives fans a revealing look into his life outside the squared circle. In an interview with For The Win, Michaels spoke about his return to the WWE in 2002 and how he explains wrestling to his two children.

FTW: Do you ever sit and think about where you might be now if you hadn’t become a Christian?

Michaels: I don’t like to be an alarmist or over-dramatize too much, but certainly a number of the guys I used to run around with are dead, and I don’t think it’s a huge leap that I was very close to winding up the same way. Even if had I not gone that far, it’s a very easy jump to be what’s termed as a wrestling tragedy. Being divorced from my wife, alienated from my children, and living alone… the only time you hear from me is when my mugshot pops up on TMZ. Both of those are very realistic possibilities, and I don’t think it’s overstating. My life was literally saved, as far as I’m concerned.

FTW: In the book you wrote that when you returned to the WWE in 2002, you were surprised to find out how many wrestlers were open with their faith.

Michaels: You see football players huddling around and getting in a circle and praying after games, and [spirituality] is fairly open in other lines of work. For whatever reason, in ours, it wasn’t. In our line of work… it’s met with such unbelievable overwhelming cynicism.

Truthfully, you know, that’s something you worry about coming back, but as I came back I was so open, I was so excited about it that I didn’t know enough to maybe keep quiet, so I spoke about it constantly. It’s one of those things where if you’re the first to step forward, other people step forward.

FTW: Whenever I think of Shawn Michaels, I think of Vince McMahon’s famous call from WrestleMania XII when you beat Bret Hart, “the boyhood dream has come true.” In the book you actually note that when you were a kid, you had no bigger dream that to win the Southwest Championship Wrestling title, meaning Vince’s call was a bit of a fabrication. When did you begin to believe ‘I can win the WWF title and be the best in the world?’

Michaels: As a kid, I didn’t have the ability to dream as big as what was to happen. So I didn’t dream of it in the AWA — you always sort of say ‘I want to be the world champion.’ I can remember [the wife of Michaels’ original trainer José Lothario] saying ‘this boy’s going to be a world champion someday.’ And that’s very nice of her, that’s why you say. You don’t say ‘he’s going to be mediocre.’

It wasn’t until I got into the WWE, WWF at the time, and really started my singles career. The dream grew as I was in wrestling… and even now I sit back and I’m amazed at what I’ve accomplished. And I mean that I’m humbly amazed. I surpassed anything that I thought was possible, and I’m incredibly thankful for that.

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FTW: How do you explain pro wrestling to your children?

Michaels: It’s tough to explain to kids, especially when you’re the guy doing it. Our kids didn’t watch it for the longest time until we felt that they were at an age appropriate time where you could sort of explain it. It’s a confusing line of work. There’s pieces of the real you that are there, and there’s pieces that are not. You’re beating the living daylights out of yourself and other people, but at the same time you get along with all these people. And then in your home life you’re living a life to where ultimately it’d be great if everything didn’t wind up in a fight. It’s a little bit of a tightrope and you do your best to walk it.

FTW: Why was it so important to you to share the story of your life outside the ring?

Michaels: Wrestling consumes you 24/7, but it’s only one aspect of my life, and in a sense, it’s just like a job. More of my life was consumed with my family and my faith, but that’s not TV every week. You have all this inside of you that you want to get out from that very big part of your life, and you don’t have an avenue to do that. That’s what this book was, to have the opportunity to express just how important that side of my life is. I don’t claim to be the best at it, but it saved me and I couldn’t be more thankful for it, it gave me the ability to have the appreciation for my wife and children…. Because that’s where my legacy is, it’s in my children. That’s the only thing that’s going to matter when all this passes away, God isn’t going to ask me how many championships I won.

Shawn Michaels is undoubtedly one of the greatest professional wrestlers in the history of the business, but the price he paid to (…)

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